SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Loretto will use a donation of $500,000 to launch a new program to train its employees on an electronic-medical-record (EMR) system.

The training program seeks to “promote digital inclusion with its employees,” per a news release about the training. 

The Parker family of Portland, Oregon donated the funding and is referring to the training program as the Loretto digital-inclusion program, the organization said. Kathy Parker’s parents became residents of Loretto in 2007.

The nonprofit Loretto is a health-care organization providing services for older adults throughout Central New York. The organization serves close to 10,000 individuals each year through 19 locations in Onondaga and Cayuga counties.

With the funding, the nonprofit will begin training its staff on new electronic medical records that it says will “significantly streamline” how frontline health-care workers provide care, as well as provide them with transferrable skills that will enable them to be successful in a digital, knowledge-based economy.

Loretto is tentatively scheduled to start using some of its digital records on June 1, so the training will start very soon, says Kimberly Townsend, president and CEO of Loretto. 

“We are very deep in the planning and execution mode and the training is a huge part of that,” says Townsend. 

Loretto will eventually train up to 2,000 of employees on the electronic medical records, including those working in Loretto’s skilled nursing and housing programs, according to Townsend. 

Loretto’s training team is working with Washington, D.C.–based Healthtech Consulting, LLC to deliver the instruction. 

Through collaborations with lead EMR vendors, and with additional financial support that includes a New York State grant of $595,000, Loretto had been planning for initiatives around digital literacy for its employees throughout 2020. 

The entire training effort is costing Loretto more than $2 million, Townsend tells CNYBJ. 

Digital literacy — or the skill of being able to find, discern, analyze, and use data found on digital platforms — is a “critical component” of providing “high quality, affordable health care,” Loretto contends.

In promoting digital literacy at Loretto, the organization says the Parker family recognized the opportunity to “effect change at both an organizational-level and personally for employees.”

“In the midst of the pandemic, in 2020, [the Parker family] reached out to us and we began discussions around what they could do to not only help our great employees and help Loretto but likewise to give back to the community that was Kathy Parker’s home,” says Townsend.

“In 2007, my parents became residents of the Loretto community. During frequent visits with them, I became acquainted with dozens of employees, who work diligently and with compassion. Technical literacy has become imperative for all workplaces of today and tomorrow. My family is honored to help Loretto initiate the EMR employee training program, which will advance staff skills and allow them to enhance the service they provide,” Kathy Parker said in describing what inspired the donation. 

The Parker family — including Mark and Kathy Parker, along with their three children — dedicated this support in honor of John and Shirley Mills, Kathy’s parents. Shirley Mills still resides in Syracuse, her hometown, and the support helps to keep her husband John’s memory alive and at the forefront of their family’s minds, Loretto said. 

Kathy Parker still visits her hometown regularly to spend time with her mother, Loretto added.